Confessions of a former sportswriter

Bl4me g4me

Outside of Wisconsin, we in South Mississippi have lived in the Brett Favre immersion zone longer than anybody. I doubt many in these parts have ambivalent feelings about Ol’ No. 4. I’m not going to pretend to know what his new Minnesota Vikings teammates think about his signing. I’d imagine it’s love/hate in that locker room, too.

Here, though, are things we ought to blame Favre for and things that aren’t his fault.

Blame Favre For: Being wishy-washy. (And when Peter King says it about you, whoa.) Perhaps he’s had to do this to maneuver his way to Minnesota after his Green Bay ouster, but his wishy-washiness is what led the Packers to let him go. They trade him to the Jets because they don’t want him in their conference, much less their division. And he had to retire and be released to be able to sign with who he wanted to. Don’t forget things were good in the New York until the last five games of the season.

Don’t Blame Favre For: At times, ESPN has been non-stop Favre. ESPN Quatro anyone? National outlets don’t focus their resources on stories that don’t help move their ratings/readership meters. They do what the numbers tell them to, and the soap opera has fed into that machine. Oh, and so have Bus, Bonita and Scott. Soap opera, right?

Blame Favre For: Burning his bridges. Many Packers fans could live with him wearing the green and white in New York. Many will never forgive him for going to Minnesota. Only thing worse would’ve been for him to play in Chicago. I wonder if Favre has had his accountants figure out whether $12 million will make up for revenues lost in his business interests in Green Bay.

Don’t Blame Favre For: Wanting to play more football. Whether they’ve played in the NFL 19 years or 19 days of training camp, players dread the idea of retirement or seeing the Turk. Anybody who doesn’t recognize a big part of stardom is enjoying the addictive nature of being the center of attention hasn’t paid attention to the history of sports icons. See Jordan, Michael; and others.

Blame Favre For: Tarnishing others’ memories of him. I hesitate to use “tarnish his legacy” because anybody who things hanging around for a year or two will take away his all-time records is crazy. If, at 39, he limps through some portion of this season like he ended last year, people will remember it. See Unitas, Lightning-Bolt-Helmet-Wearing Johnny.

Don’t Blame Favre For: “Chemistry issues.” I’m sure there are folks in the Vikings locker room who are upset with the signing. John David Booty can’t enjoy starting to look for a new employer, and the two-headed QB monster of Sage Rosenfels/Tarvaris Jackson. (Remember the old adage: If you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have a quarterback.) I’m a firm believer that winning creates good chemistry. Sure, if you’ve got bad seeds like Albert Connell, it’s not good for a locker room. But how much barking came from the Jets while they were riding high? Thomas Jones unloaded on Favre after the team lost four of its last five, not before. Winning locker rooms are happy, joking locker rooms. The quiet of losing locker rooms creates time for players to think about who to point fingers at.